






Copyright If 


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THE FUNDAMENTALS 
OF THE 

RELIGIOUS LIFE 






THE FUNDAMENTALS 

*1 

OF THE 

RELIGIOUS LIFE 


TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN 


BY THE 

REV. JOHN PETER M. SCHLEUTER, S.J. 


NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO 

BENZIGER BROTHERS 

PRINTERS TO THE I PUBLISHERS OF 

HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE I BENZIGER’S MAGAZINE 

1913 


IPermtesu Superforum, 



fUbtl tat 


Remy Lafort, D.D., 

Censor Libroruwt. 


Imprimatur. 

John Cardinal Farley, 
Archbishop of New York. 


New York, January 20, 1913. 


COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY BENZIGER BROTHERS. 

^0) Cl. A 3 4 7 2 3 4 

Xof 


PREFACE 

OF THE TRANSLATOR 


T his little book appeared first in French, 
over two hundred years ago. Its au¬ 
thor was a priest of the Society of Jesus. 
Only the initial “ O ” of his name is given 
on the title-page. The French publisher 
says that the book, although short, contains 
the best that has ever been written about the 
religious life. It is regarded as a master¬ 
piece of its kind. The well-known Jesuit, 
Father Ramiere, calls it a real treasure and 
believes that any one who makes it known 
to those who wish to reach the perfection 
of the religious life is doing a good work. 
He considers himself favored to be able to 
recommend it most earnestly. The Vicar- 


6 Preface of the Translator 

General de Ville, of Lyons, pronounces it to 
be the very best book that can be offered 
to religious for their instruction. The Ger¬ 
man translation was very favorably re¬ 
ceived. Many religious wrote to the trans¬ 
lator to express their sincere gratitude for 
having published it in German. This trans¬ 
lation is from the German edition. 


THE FUNDAMENTALS OF 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 


First Part 
General Rules 

Y ou have opened your heart to the voice 
of our most beloved Saviour, who, 
in His goodness and mercy, has called you 
to the religious life. You have coura¬ 
geously followed this call and have overcome 
all the difficulties and obstacles in your way. 
Up to the present you have performed all 
your religious duties generously, zealously, 
and joyously, but remember that this is not 
sufficient; you must persevere. If you 
grow lax in the observance of your rules 
and in your religious duties, you expose 
yourself to the gravest danger, and, even 
7 


8 


General Rules 


more justly than the man in the Gospel, to 
the reproach of having laid the foundation 
of a magnificent structure, but of not hav¬ 
ing finished it. 

Perseverance completes the work; and 
he who perseveres unto the end shall he 
crowned . 

Often call to mind the special favors 
which God has bestowed upon you. He 
has chosen you from among thousands who 
were far more zealous in His service than 
you are, and who had not offended Him as 
often as you have offended Him. He has 
called you out of the world as He called the 
chosen people out of Egypt; and he has led 
you into a well-regulated and pious religious 
community as into a promised land. Thank 
Him from your heart for having done such 
great things in your behalf; be grateful also 
to all those who have encouraged and as- 


General Rules 


9 


sisted you in following His invitation; thank 
the Blessed Virgin Mary especially. Would 
you not feel compelled to show gratitude to 
one who had saved you from shipwreck on 
the stormy ocean and brought you to a safe 
harbor ? 

The religious who does not daily thank 
God for being called to a religious life proves 
thereby that he does not appreciate his voca¬ 
tion at its true value and that he is no longer 
worthy of it. 

In all your actions let yourself be di¬ 
rected by the same intention which you had 
when you embraced the religious life. You 
did not take that step to practise ordinary 
virtues only, by observing faithfully all the 
commandments of God and of the Church. 
This is done by numbers living in the world. 
You chose the religious life with the desire 
and with the resolution of becoming a true 


10 


General Rules 


religious, that is to say, one who considers 
it his duty to strive after the highest per¬ 
fection. You are expected to become more 
and more intimately united to God by 
sanctifying grace. Imitate St. Bernard 
who, recollecting himself, put to himself 
several times during the day this question: 
“ Bernard, for what purpose didst thou en¬ 
ter here ? Why didst thou choose this man¬ 
ner of living? ” 

The archer who does not keep his eyes 
fixed on the mark, will, instead of receiving 
a prize, earn only shame and scorn . 

This intimate union with God must take 
root in the very depth of the soul, and it is 
gained by repeated acts of faith, hope, and 
charity, and by acts of other virtues, for in¬ 
stance, of adoration, praise, humiliation, 
and thanksgiving. You must do what 
Jesus Christ Himself and, after Him, all 


General Rules 


ii 


the saints have done; that is, you must per¬ 
form all your actions with perfect recol¬ 
lection, with a pure and pious intention, and 
with a perfect submission of your own will 
to the will of God. 

We cannot become united to God, who is 
purity itself, except by a perfectly purified 
spirit. 

Christ Himself has made known to us the 
means we must use in order to become 
truly spiritual. They are three. “ Re¬ 
nounce yourself,” that is to say, combat all 
sensual inclinations, which, however in¬ 
nocent and pardonable they may appear, 
are nevertheless punishable and imbued 
with self-love, unless purified by a good, 
i. e., supernatural intention. “ Carry your 
cross ” Resist the great and continual 
aversion which you may experience in the 
fulfilment of your duties which your voca- 


12 


General Rules 


tion imposes upon you. " Follow me” that 
is to say, endeavor in all things always to 
do God’s will and not your own. 

He who leads a life according to his own 
will, and thus gratifies his own inclinations, 
will never acquire religious perfection; he 
will not make any spiritual progress. The 
broad road, flattering the senses, is the road 
that leads to hell. 

If perfection, as it has been presented to 
you, appears difficult (it is so in fact, if 
measured by your own strength), then 
arouse in yourself a great confidence in the 
goodness and infinite power of Him who 
has graciously called you. He will never 
refuse you what you need in order to do 
what He expects of you. Look at the 
saints in heaven. Many of them were 
weaker than you are, and could not count 
on the special assistance which you re- 


General Rules 


13 


ceived; but, notwithstanding all this, they 
have reached their destiny. Therefore do 
not look for excuses to justify yourself; 
these excuses will not be accepted at the day 
of judgment. 

Whoever does faithfully and persever- 
ingly what he is able to do, will be success¬ 
ful in all his spiritual undertakings . 

CONSIDERATION 

Is it not astonishing and sad to find in 
religious communities persons who, after 
having spent therein ten or twenty years, 
are still attached to the world, subject to 
their own humors and caprices, impatient 
of the least contradiction and adversity, and 
who in the practice of their spiritual duties, 
are far more neglectful and, in their man¬ 
ner of acting, far more vacillating than 
people in the world? Does not all this 
bring dishonor on the religious life? Does 


H 


General Rules 


such conduct not expose one to the greatest 
danger of losing one’s soul? Our meek 
Saviour one day pronounced a curse upon a 
fig-tree, which, though rich in foliage, was 
bare of fruit. And who can doubt that this 
same Saviour will one day, sooner or later, 
pronounce a far more severe sentence on 
those, who, whilst wearing the holy habit, 
did not live according to their profession? 
Considering this, who does not feel impelled 
to cry out like Moses ( Deut . xxxii. 29) : 
“ O that they would be wise and would 
understand, and would provide for their 
last end.” May God grant that these un¬ 
happy religious who have been favored by 
God in such an extraordinary way, may 
come at last to their senses and realize 
the great danger to which they are ex¬ 
posed. 

Change of conduct , not change of clothes , 
constitutes the true religious. 


General Rules 


15 


These few words of advice, well consid¬ 
ered and conscientiously put into practice, 
should suffice to advance religious far on 
the way of religious perfection; but, hav¬ 
ing been requested to give some more par¬ 
ticular instructions that may help to regu¬ 
late the conduct of religious in different 
circumstances, I shall try to comply with 
this request. 




Second Part 
Particular Rules 

First Chapter 

CONDUCT TOWARDS GOD 

A lways cultivate a great reverence to¬ 
wards God. Do not, however, try 
to penetrate into the unfathomable depths 
of the Divinity. You would lose your time 
in fruitless considerations and speculations 
and endeavor to attain what is impossible 
for you. Endeavor, rather, to increase 
your knowledge of God by meditating on 
His almighty power, on His justice, on His 
boundless goodness and liberality, and on 
His other perfections. Often make lively 
acts of faith, hope, and love; praise the 
17 


18 Conduct Towards God 

divine Majesty; acknowledge gratefully the 
many favors which He has bestowed upon 
you and continues to bestow upon you in 
body and soul. Be ever mindful that God 
has called you into existence and keeps you 
in existence; that He has redeemed you 
with His precious Blood; and that He de¬ 
sires to take you one day to heaven and to 
give you a share for all eternity in His own 
happiness. 

From the kind and charitable opinion we 
have of a person and the remembrance of 
the favors we have received from him, 
spring forth that reverence, esteem, love, 
and attachment which takes hold of our 
soul and heart. 

Never omit, when awaking in the morn¬ 
ing, to put yourself in the presence of God, 
to thank Him, and to offer yourself up to 
Him with all that you shall do and suffer 


Conduct Towards God 19 

during the day. As He strictly required of 
the Israelites that they should offer up to 
Him each year the first-fruits, so He re¬ 
quires of you that you should offer up to 
Him each day the first thoughts and senti¬ 
ments of your heart. 

Whoever begins the day with good 
thoughts regarding God and His holy Will 
will hardly close the day with a sinful 
action. 

When you hear the signal for rising in 
the morning do not grant the least indul¬ 
gence to nature, but do holy violence to 
yourself by getting up at once. Be con¬ 
vinced that your day’s work will succeed 
better and that your soul will derive great 
profit from this act of self-denial, which 
you bring to God as the first sacrifice of the 
day. Let it be your resolve, once and for 
all, to deprive yourself of the sensual satis- 


20 


Conduct Towards God 


faction which you would enjoy by resting 
longer. You will practise at the same time 
an act of obedience, by which you will prove 
your love for God, showing your readiness 
to be at once employed in His service. 

The general who gains a victory over his 
enemy at the beginning of the day has taken 
the first step towards gaining a perfect vic¬ 
tory before the day is over. 

Follow the advice given by God Himself 
to His faithful servant Abraham to help 
him to become perfect, namely that he 
should walk always, from the early morn¬ 
ing, in the presence of His Majesty. Fre¬ 
quently during the day, wherever you may 
be, alone or with others, make acts of faith, 
hope, and love of God; call to your mind 
the truth that the eyes of your Divine 
Spouse are constantly resting upon you and 
that all the movements of your soul as well 


Conduct Towards God 21 

as those of your body are perfectly known 
to Him; and say often with your lips, and 
yet oftener with your heart: “ God sees 

me,” remembering at the same time that all 
your works will one day be weighed in the 
scale of God’s infinite justice. 

He who walks in the presence of God will 
continually make progress on the way to 
heaven. 

At the beginning of the day make a good 
intention in order thereby to animate and 
sanctify all your actions. Offer them up 
humbly and cheerfully to your Creator in 
union with all those actions which Jesus 
Christ Himself performed when on earth, 
and with those which God Himself continu¬ 
ally performs in you by assisting you with 
His grace in all that you do. As a drop of 
water that falls into a glass of generous 
wine appropriates to itself all the qualities 


22 


Conduct Towards God 


of the wine, so also all your actions, when 
performed with a good intention, will be¬ 
come, as it were, actions of Our Lord Him¬ 
self, and will be highly pleasing in the sight 
of God. 

A work done without a good intention is 
like a body without a soul; however beauti¬ 
ful this body may be it is only a corpse. 

Although all the actions of a person con¬ 
secrated to God belong to God as the fruit 
of a tree belongs to the owner of the tree, 
still spiritual exercises, recitation of the 
divine office, examination of conscience, 
spiritual reading, and prayers prescribed by 
the rule, as well as the reception of the 
Sacrament ought to be offered up to God 
in an especially perfect manner by those 
who live in religion. Therefore be intent 
upon performing all these actions with a 
most pure intention and with due recollec- 


Conduct Towards God 23 

tion. Dismiss distractions at once, as soon 
as you become aware of them. It would be 
better for you to be forced to lie in bed with 
excruciating fever-pains than to entertain 
wilful distractions in your spiritual exer¬ 
cises; for to entertain wilful distractions 
is to commit a sin of irreverence which God 
will punish severely, if not always in this 
world, certainly in the other world. Re¬ 
member the words of God to the prophet 
Jeremias (xlviii. 10) : “ Cursed be he that 

doth the work of the Lord deceitfully ” 
Never, under any pretext, omit one of the 
prayers which you are bound to say, unless 
you are duly excused by obedience or by 
some urgent, necessary work. Far be it 
from you to omit your prayers on account 
of disgust or want of spiritual consolation 
or the distractions from which you may 
have to suffer. Remember that sick people 
do not cease to take food when they have 


24 Conduct Towards God 

no appetite; they must often force them¬ 
selves to eat. They know that nourishment 
is necessary if they wish to keep up their 
strength and be restored to health. 

When devotion is not kept alive the soul 
languishes. It is only in persevering prayer 
that it finds its strength. 

Acquire the habit of using often during 
the day ejaculatory prayers by the elevation 
of your heart to God. Nothing is so easy 
as this practice, because it can be performed 
at any time and in any place. Besides, it is 
extremely useful, since it is in this contin¬ 
ual elevation of the heart to God that the 
spiritual life consists. It is, indeed, diffi¬ 
cult to keep this truth always before the 
mind, but if you ask your guardian angel 
he will remind you of this holy practice. 
Choose a little aspiration and resolve to say 
it two or three times from the hour of your 


Conduct Towards God 25 

rising until noon; then as many times from 
noon until vesper-time, and from evening 
until you retire to rest. You will soon find 
that you can use this little aspiration even 
oftener; and, after a while, you will become 
so accustomed to saying it that you cannot 
live, as it were, without this pious practice. 
Great will be its spiritual advantages, and 
great the treasures which you will lay up in 
heaven. 

As often as your soul ascends to God, so 
often will God descend to you. From this 
practice arises a wonderful union with God, 
which is the source of many very great spir¬ 
itual blessings. 

It must be your constant endeavor, from 
early dawn until you retire to rest, to please 
God everywhere, and in everything. Say 
often from the bottom of your heart: “I 
will do this out of love for Thee, my good 


26 Conduct Towards God 

God.” If you meet with some suffering, 
then say: “I will willingly bear this out 
of love for Thee, my most sweet Lord.” 
When you take part in some lawful enjoy¬ 
ment, then say: “It is for Thy sake, my 
God, that I will grant myself this pleasure.” 
If there is a chance of refusing some satis¬ 
faction to the senses, then say: “ Out of 

love for Thee, my dear Jesus, I will not look 
at this; I will not make this remark; I will 
not taste what would be sweet to my palate; 
I will not listen to these delightful sounds.” 
In short, in whatever you may do or 
suffer, say at the same time from your 
heart: “All for Thee, my God, all for 
Thee.” 

The coin which does not bear the image 
of the Prince has no value in the kingdom, 
and the work on which is not imprinted the 
mark of the love of God has no value for 
heaven. 


Conduct Towards God 27 

If you are anxious to do something 
which will greatly please our good God you 
should preserve always and everywhere an 
unshaken confidence in His goodness and 
power. No parents have ever loved their 
children so much and so tenderly as God 
loves us; and His power to help us is as 
boundless as His goodness. What greater 
consolation could be imagined, in all suffer¬ 
ings and trials, than this confidence in the 
goodness and power of Almighty God; and 
what more powerful motive could there be 
to impel us to practise good works and to 
lead a virtuous life? 

The greater our confidence in God is, the 
more willing He is to help us. 

You cannot always avoid occupations 
which seem to exhaust all your strength and 
demand all your attention. When this 
happens, then you must not allow yourself 


28 Conduct Towards God 

to lose your self-control. Do your utmost 
to remain recollected in spirit and united to 
God. If you cannot continually think of 
Him, at least do so from time to time; offer 
Him your heart repeatedly; and as soon as 
your occupation is over, give yourself once 
more exclusively to God. 

Religious who are obliged by obedience 
to occupy themselves with distracting tern- 
poral affairs, must be like a piece of wood, 
which, immersed in water, is kept there only 
as long as it is held there by force. 

There is nothing which the heart of the 
truly pious religious desires more than the 
love of God. How sad it is that the love 
of God is often weakened and even driven 
out of the heart by self-love! Such people 
are like ignorant dealers in gems who mis¬ 
take worthless stones for precious dia¬ 
monds. If you wish a touchstone, by 


Conduct Towards God 29 

which you can avoid any danger of being 
deceived, and to find out whether the true 
love of God still dwells in your heart, put 
to yourself the question, whether you rejoice 
as much over the good done by others as if 
you had done it yourself, and whether the 
offense committed in your sight by a stran¬ 
ger causes you as much sadness as if you 
yourself or one of your friends had of¬ 
fended God. 

The greater the love of ourself, the less 
we love God. 

If you are truly in earnest to belong en¬ 
tirely to God and to become more and more 
pleasing in His sight, never occupy your¬ 
self with anything but with Him. If you 
act differently, if you do not renounce all 
that is not God, you will never become truly 
united to Him. Be also on your guard not 
to desire with too great anxiety, nor too 


30 Conduct Towards God 

earnestly, to join in any conversation, how¬ 
ever pious, nor to crave inordinately any 
degree of perfection, however great and de¬ 
sirable it may be. Remember that not only 
what is bad, but even what is very good in 
itself, will impede perfection, if used indis¬ 
creetly, with too great impetuosity and 
zeal. 

A plate of precious metal held before the 
eyes prevents one from seeing the sun no 
less than a plate of base metal. 

Keep alive in yourself a great love for 
Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, 
and a deep reverence for all the mysteries 
of His life and passion. You must try to 
understand well every single one of these 
mysteries, if you do not wish to render 
yourself guilty of great ingratitude. In 
order not to incur this reproach imitate the 
heavenly spouse who made for herself a 


Conduct Towards God 31 

little bouquet of all the mysteries of the life 
of her bridegroom and wore it upon her 
breast. This you also can do by often 
making acts of love for Our Lord; by medi¬ 
tating continually on the lessons contained 
in the mysteries of His life on earth; by 
having the Crucified always before your 
eyes; by hiding yourself in His sacred 
wounds; by often pronouncing with rever¬ 
ence His most holy Name; by visiting Him 
as often as you can in the Most Blessed 
Sacrament to adore His Sacred Humanity. 
It is just for this reason that the Most 
Blessed Sacrament is kept in the chapel, to 
give all the inmates of the house a chance 
to pay a visit to Our Lord whenever they 
may like to do so. 

Whoever does not endeavor to love Our 
Lord with his whole heart after receiving 
so many blessings from Him, deserves to 
be separated from the children of God and 


32 Conduct Towards God 

have his name stricken from the Book of 
Life. 

With the reverence which you have for 
God and for the Sacred Humanity of Our 
Lord unite a sincere love and veneration 
for the Saints, above all for the Blessed 
Virgin Mary, for St. Joseph, for your 
Guardian Angel, for your Patron Saint, 
and for the Founder of your order. Give 
thanks to them every day for the graces 
which they continually obtain for you, and 
entreat them never to cease to assist you in 
the future and at last to conduct you into 
heaven, there to sing the praises of God 
with them for all eternity. 

Gratitude for favors received is one of 
the best ways of inducing a benefactor to 
continue his generosity , whilst ingratitude 
paralyzes the hand of the most charitably 
inclined . 


Conduct Towards God 


33 


CONSIDERATION 

What confusion, what torturing despair, 
must take hold of the soul of a religious at 
the hour of death, when the moment draws 
near to give a strict account to the om¬ 
niscient Judge of how he has fulfilled his 
duties, should he be conscious that, although 
he was strictly bound to serve God more 
perfectly and more generously than the 
common faithful, he has been less anxious 
than they to honor, glorify, and love Him. 
The loving Saviour told the Jewk one day 
that the Ninivites would as accusers rise 
against them. So also will the people of 
the world rise against the religious on the 
day of judgment, and insist that God should 
punish them severely for having served and 
loved Him less in the retirement of the 
cloister than they in the midst of worldly 
occupations and distractions. How far 


34 Conduct Towards God 

better it would have been if such religious 
had remained in the world instead of living 
in the convent in a manner so little in keep¬ 
ing with the spirit of their vocation. 

We have it on the word of Our Lord 
Himself that it would have been better for 
Judas even not to be born, than to have be¬ 
come such an unworthy Apostle. 


Second Chapter 

BEHAVIOR TOWARDS THE ORDER 


L ook upon the order into which you 
have entered as a wise institution of 
the Holy Ghost, well adapted to lead the 
soul to perfection. Take delight in speak¬ 
ing of the special favors it has received 
from heaven and of the excellent services 
it has rendered to God and man through 
the great number of pious religious who 
have spent their lives in it happily and faith¬ 
fully. Let it be your ambition to follow 
their example as closely as possible, so that 
those who enter the community after you 
will find it in at least as good a condition 
as it was when you became a member of it. 

The child who by his bad conduct hurts 
and lessens the good reputation which was 
35 


36 Behavior Towards the Order 

inherited from those who were formerly 
members of the family, deserves to be de¬ 
spised and severely punished. 

Esteem and praise the order to which you 
belong, but avoid all appearance of under¬ 
valuing other orders, for although you may 
consider your order to be the one best suited 
for you, you must not think that other or¬ 
ders are not equally suited and beneficial 
for those whom the Holy Ghost leads into 
them. 

The son who speaks of his mother too 
boastfully and by doing this tries to lower 
the good opinion people have of other moth¬ 
ers does not help to make his own mother 
more esteemed, but rather draws down con¬ 
tempt upon her and upon himself. 

Should you have entered a religious or¬ 
der, led thereto by unworthy motives, and 
should you now be unable to leave it with- 


Behavior Towards the Order 37 

out giving scandal, then remain in it, for 
although you have chosen this order against 
the will of God, who destined you for some 
other order, it is now His will that you 
should remain in it. By your own fault 
you acted against His first plan for leading 
you to perfection; now follow His second 
plan and strive to live more piously and 
faithfully where you now are than you have 
hitherto been living. 

One can atone for the abuse of his liberty 
in no better way than by making a virtue 
out of the necessity arising from his own 
fault. 

Familiarize yourself with all the rules of 
your order and observe them most carefully 
because they are the work of the Holy 
Ghost. Never transgress a single one of 
these rules, however insignificant they may 
seem, out of human respect to please 


38 Behavior Towards the Order 

others, nor out of fear of incurring their 
displeasure, if you do not wish to foster in 
yourself a tendency that may in the end 
cause your spiritual ruin. The rules of an 
order point out the way along which God 
intends to lead those whom He has called 
to perfection. They cannot disregard this 
path without exposing themselves to the 
danger of losing their vocation and all those 
extraordinary graces God has in store for 
them. Cultivate a great esteem for works 
peculiar to your order. Whatever employ¬ 
ment obedience may assign you, accept it 
from the hand of God; however lowly it 
may appear in the eyes of men, look upon 
it as greater and nobler than any position 
of honor to which the world could call you. 
Put out of your mind, as a temptation, any 
desire for a different employment. The 
health of the body consists, above all, in 
this, that every member performs its func- 


Behavior Towards the Order 39 

tions well. So, too, the perfection and the 
well-being of a religious community depend 
upon the faithfulness with which every 
single member performs his duties; and it 
often happens that the community derives 
far more profit and greater spiritual bless¬ 
ings from those who are employed in ap¬ 
parently mean and insignificant occupations 
than from him who presides over the whole 
community. 

The religious who performs conscien¬ 
tiously the duties of his office deserves to 
be praised far more than the one who occu¬ 
pies a high position but is less careful in 
doing his duty. 

Should it be your duty to make known 
your opinion, or to give your vote, in some 
matter regarding the community, pray fer¬ 
vently to the Holy Ghost that He may en¬ 
lighten you and may inspire you with what 


40 Behavior Towards the Order 

will be for God’s greater glory and for the 
greater spiritual good of the order. Do 
not allow yourself to be influenced in the 
least by private or personal considerations. 

Where the counselors of the common¬ 
wealth are badly advised, only disorder and 
ruin can be expected. 

Be on your guard never to introduce into 
the order an innovation, no matter how 
little it deviates from the original spirit; 
and never omit, under any pretext, an ex¬ 
ercise which the Holy Ghost has introduced. 
Should you act contrary to this advice, it 
would have been better for you to have re¬ 
mained in the world, where you would have 
given less dishonor to God and would have 
had to expect a less severe judgment and 
punishment hereafter. 

The one who gives the first impulse to¬ 
wards the destruction of a house dedicated 


Behavior Towards the Order 41 

to God must expect a more severe punish¬ 
ment than the one who -finishes the destruc¬ 
tion. 

It is beyond all doubt that you are bound 
to love all who live with you in the same 
community, that you must assist them and 
bear with their faults; but in doing so be 
careful not to scandalize the community, 
nor bring harm to the order, which must be 
dearer to you than anything else. 

That son is very much to be blamed who 
would please his brothers and sisters at the 
expense of grieving his mother . 

If you notice that something truly blame¬ 
worthy and harmful has crept into your 
community do not grumble about it, or 
speak of it to persons who cannot remove 
the evil, but make it known to those who 
can. If you cannot do this without becom¬ 
ing unduly excited, then have recourse to 


42 Behavior Towards the Order 

God that He may show you what you ought 
to do under the circumstances. Whatever 
the evil may be, God is not indifferent about 
it, for the order is His work and He is able 
and willing to preserve it. 

He who does not hasten to extinguish the 
fire in his house, deserves to be deprived of 
his property and to be punished severely. 

Let no day pass without entreating God 
to bestow His richest blessings upon the 
whole order; to make those who have 
entered it persevere in their first fervor, and 
to call others to join it and become good 
members of it, imbued with the genuine 
spirit of the Founder. 

To entreat God fervently and constantly 
to preserve an order in its primitive 
spirit proves one to be a worthy member 
of it 


Behavior Towards the Order 43 


CONSIDERATION 

How has it come to pass that religious 
orders which came from the hand of their 
founder, perfect and imbued with an ex¬ 
cellent spirit, degenerated so in the course 
of time that they could scarcely be recog¬ 
nized? This misfortune must be ascribed 
to three causes: The first was the neglect 
of superiors to watch over their subjects as 
carefully as their duty demanded. The 
second cause was the shaking off, under 
divers pretexts, the yoke of bodily and 
spiritual abnegation and mortification. The 
third cause was the want of interior recol¬ 
lection; the religious, instead of occupying 
themselves with God, preferred intercourse 
with people of the world. Is it surprising 
that religious, living thus, should imper¬ 
ceptibly imbibe the spirit of the world and 


44 Behavior Towards the Order 

that this spirit should become sooner or 
later the spirit of the whole community? 

The more a government has become 
justly renowned, the greater the disgrace of 
its downfall; and the more flourishing a 
religious community has been by its spirit 
and discipline, the more mortifying it must 
be for it to be forced to confess that it has 
become a prey to relaxation. 


Third Chapter 

CONDUCT TOWARDS ONE’S SELF 


G od has given you existence without 
your co-operation, but He insists em¬ 
phatically upon your co-operation in order 
to lead you to perfection. Every single one 
of your actions should help you to obtain 
this end. If, then, it is your sincere and 
earnest will to perform all your actions well, 
let the example of the Son of God be always 
before you; conform your whole conduct to 
His. This is only doing what He Himself 
enjoins us to do when He says: “ I have 

given you an example, that as I have done 
to you, so you do also”(John xiii. 15). 
The more these words of Our Lord are fol¬ 
lowed, the greater progress is made on the 
road of perfection. 


45 


46 Conduct Towards One's Self 

Only that apprentice will become a per¬ 
fect master in his art who, after finding an 
excellent master, takes pains to observe him 
at his work and tries his best to imitate 
him as closely as possible. 

In all your actions be modest and hum¬ 
ble, be considerate in your words, upright 
in your deportment; do not give way to 
sadness; neither allow yourself to be car¬ 
ried away by immoderate mirth and too 
loud laughter; far from you be mockery 
and anything that may cause you spiritual 
losses; avoid vain-glory in word and action, 
and let your countenance always indicate 
the peace and serenity dwelling in your 
heart. 

Modesty is the garment of the Heavenly 
Spouse , by which she becomes pleasing to 
God, venerable to men, and formidable to 
hell 


Conduct Towards One's Self 47 

Avoid idleness as the mother and nurse 
of vices and the poison of all virtues. Be 
always occupied in such a manner that your 
mind may not be overburdened with too 
many things and too many cares. You 
may have read or heard of the apparition 
which was granted to St. Anthony, the 
Hermit, after he had entreated God to let 
him know the manner of living that was 
best fitted to lead religious on the road to 
perfection. He saw an angel, who, after 
having prayed for some time, began to 
work; after working for some time he re¬ 
turned to prayer; and after having thus 
spent the whole day he cried out: “ An¬ 

thony, behold, this is the rule of spending 
their time which you must give to thy 
brothers, to help them to progress on the 
road to perfection. ,, 

As the ailments of the body usually have 
their cause in taking either too little or too 


48 Conduct Towards One's Self 

much nourishment, so imperfections have 
their cause in idleness, that is to say, in 
doing too little, or in trying to do too much . 

Love and practise silence, which cannot 
be recommended too highly to all who 
aspire after perfection. Silence will free 
you from many temporal and spiritual trou¬ 
bles and will bring you many spiritual bless¬ 
ings. The Holy Ghost tells us that sin 
abounds where there is much talking. By 
this He also teaches us that virtue is the 
offspring of silence. Was it not during the 
midst of the night, when silence reigned, 
that the Son of God entered the world to 
redeem us? So does the Holy Ghost dur¬ 
ing the time of silence communicate Him¬ 
self to souls, to render them perfect. 

When the spouse is silent then the heav¬ 
enly bridegroom speaks to her. Never was 
a talkative religious a perfect one* 


Conduct Towards One's Self 49 

Living in a well-ordered religious com¬ 
munity, avoid all self-will, not only in re¬ 
gard to making a good use of your time in 
active works, but also, and especially, in 
regard to your spiritual occupation. If 
you do not do this, you will be like a sheep 
roving about in the desert of the cloister, 
exposed to the ravages of time and to the 
malicious powers of hell. Is it not a piti¬ 
ful sight to see, in a religious community, 
persons who practise with far more zeal 
certain little devotions, and give them up 
with far more difficulty, than the prayers 
and the divine office which they are bound 
to recite? 

Self-will is one of the most cunning 
daughters of pride, which is always intent 
on making itself felt. Pride exposes the 
soul to the greatest danger of being led 
astray and of being lost. 


50 Conduct Towards One's Self 

In whatever position you may find your¬ 
self, you can do something or nothing. If 
you can do something, do it for God’s sake 
as well as possible; but, if you can do noth¬ 
ing, patiently bear with your inability, and 
do not worry about it, but recommend your¬ 
self and all to God. This manner of acting 
will always prove profitable for your ad¬ 
vancement in spiritual perfection; the con¬ 
trary will only trouble uselessly and annoy 
you. 

It is as certain a fault to attempt to do 
what is beyond our ability, as it is to omit 
what we can do and are bound to do. 

Do not desire extraordinary heavenly 
favors, especially those which carry with 
them some external sign of sanctity. 
Should you receive such a favor without 
having desired and asked for it, do not 
think much of yourself on account of it, 


Conduct Towards One's Self 51 

and do not speak of it except when obliged 
to do so, and then not without great 
humility. Did not Judas possess the gift 
of miracles, and Caiphas of prophecy? 
Did not Simon Magus attract universal at¬ 
tention ? 

The more virtue hides itself, the more 
safe it is. Of far more worth is the pious, 
hidden, interior life, than external splendor . 

Do not seek for help except from God 
and from your superiors; otherwise, you 
will offend the goodness of God, which has 
taken you under its protection from the 
time you confided yourself to it, and which 
is powerful enough to help you. Besides, 
it would avail you nothing to put your trust 
in a creature whose power is limited, and 
who can hold forth to you only vain and 
empty promises which God will scatter like 
smoke; moreover, if the splendor of your 


52 Conduct Towards One's Self 

soul did not become greatly diminished 
under these circumstances it would simply 
be due to God’s great mercy in dealing with 
you. 

He who leans upon a reed is sure to fall 
and perhaps he dangerously wounded. 

The desire to taste the forbidden fruit 
and to listen to the cunning remarks of the 
tempter was the cause of our first parents 
being driven out of paradise, and this led 
to the ruin of innumerable souls. It is 
strictly necessary to wage a continual war 
against curiosity. Do not regret the pain 
and trouble it will cost you to resist this 
natural inclination. Victory will free you 
from a great deal of worry and anxiety and 
will put you, instead, in possession of a 
heavenly state of tranquillity. 

Curiosity is always uneasy and renders 
the soul unfit for the practice of true piety . 


Conduct Towards One's Self 53 

Nothing is more dangerous for a reli¬ 
gious than sensual attachment which hides 
itself under the mantle of friendship. This 
is one of the most subtle means by which 
the tempter draws a heart into his net and 
away from God. To hide his scheme the 
better he is accustomed to infuse into the 
poor heart a certain reverence for the loved 
object, accompanied with sentiments of 
false piety. As long as the eye of the soul 
sees clearly it will soon discover the mis¬ 
chievous cunning. As infallible marks of 
this affection may be mentioned: Fre¬ 
quent thinking of the loved object and of 
all that is connected with it; an impetuous 
desire to be in its company; the endeavor to 
come into the possession of articles belong¬ 
ing to it as a means to keep alive its remem¬ 
brance ; unbecoming, and even ridiculous 
lamentations, when forced to be separated 
from it. 


54 Conduct Towards One's Self 

The most dangerous and fatal attach¬ 
ments are wont to begin with the spirit and 
end with the flesh. 

Take your rest, your food, and your 
recreation for necessity’s sake, not for the 
pleasure which the senses naturally experi¬ 
ence therein. In actions that occupy the 
body more than the mind remember that 
you are a Christian and a religious; direct 
all by a good intention to the greater glory 
of God. Imitate the birds which bend 
their heads only when drinking and at once 
raise them again towards heaven. 

In the same measure that we gratify our 
sensuality do we suffer a loss of the spirit 
of piety. 

Renounce generously all spiritual conso¬ 
lations, and, if you at times receive them, 
take no satisfaction in them, but receive 
them as a pure gift of the goodness of God 


Conduct Towards One's Self 55 

to encourage you in the service of your 
Creator. You will be an object of pleas¬ 
ure in the sight of God only when you serve 
Him, as it were, at your own expense, with¬ 
out seeking your own interest in anything, 
renouncing everything that might be re¬ 
garded as a hireling’s reward. What 
would you think of a son who loved his 
father’s gift more than his father himself? 
And what must we think of a religious who 
values consolations and interior pious senti¬ 
ments more than solid virtue and perfect 
submission to the Holy Will of God? 

The fountain is always to he preferred to 
the water -flowing out of it; and God, the 
fountain of all that is good, must he loved 
far more than all the gifts He may hestow 
upon us. 

To become truly perfect in the sight of 
God you must not only renounce the grati- 


56 Conduct Towards One's Self 
1 

fication of the senses and all spiritual con¬ 
solations, but you must also bear resignedly 
whatever bodily and spiritual afflictions 
God may send you, because sufferings are 
highly beneficial for religious persons. 
The patience with which we suffer, for the 
love of God, whatever happens to us is the 
surest mark of our belonging to the number 
of His chosen ones. 

In the fire of the furnace the true gold 
appears; and in sufferings the genuine 
friends of God become known. 

Keep vanity very far from you. It is 
the gnawing worm that injures and de¬ 
stroys the most perfect actions; it is the 
poison that corrodes works otherwise 
highly meritorious, and even renders them 
displeasing in the sight of God. It is a 
fatal rock on which most virtuous souls 
often suffer shipwreck. I adjure you, be 


Conduct Towards One's Self 57 

on your guard against this powerful enemy 
of your soul; never allow vanity to enter 
your heart. Whatever may be your occu¬ 
pation, be satisfied with being seen by God 
alone. Let it be enough for you to please 
Him, by cheerfully and faithfully giving to 
Him what the world is so anxious to give 
to you. Sooner or later, you may be sure, 
honor will come to you, with less danger 
and with greater splendor. 

Vanity often gathers with very little sat¬ 
isfaction what virtue has sown with great 
labor . 

Want of constancy is a very common 
fault. Many have a very docile mind, and 
give themselves willingly and generously to 
the practice of virtue when first they realize 
its beauty; but they lack the energy of will 
to complete the work they have begun. 
They should often meditate on what they 


58 Conduct Towards One's Self 

have resolved, and should unceasingly ask 
of God the grace of perseverance in their 
good resolutions. Advance on the road of 
perfection like the sun, which has not 
swerved from its course during thousands 
of years. 

The soul will he saved only by perse - 
vering in the path of virtue until death. 

Avoid carefully all wilful faults and 
look upon them as totally incompatible with 
the religious life. Spiritual writers con¬ 
sider smaller sins in a way more dangerous 
for a religious than more serious transgres¬ 
sions, for should he have the misfortune of 
falling into mortal sin he would not fail to 
be aware of it at once, nor could find rest 
until he had humbly confessed it; on the 
other hand, if he is careless about avoiding 
venial sins he becomes more and more in¬ 
sensible to them, and commits them with a 


Conduct Towards One's Self 59 

steadily decreasing remorse of conscience 
and thus the broad road to the greatest sins 
is opened. It was not bears or boars that 
devastated the vineyard of the bridegroom; 
the damage was done by little foxes. 

A little spark may cause a far more dis¬ 
astrous conflagration than a large burning 
coal which is put out at once. 

In conversation and at the usual recrea¬ 
tion at home, accustom yourself to speak 
about spiritual things, as your vocation re¬ 
quires. In this way you will do something 
very pleasing to God, and very profitable to 
your soul. You will render yourself more 
fit for prayer, and you will edify highly 
those who hear you. 

The language which has God for its sub¬ 
ject comes doubtless from a heart that loves 
Him. 


60 Conduct Towards One's Self 

Observe most conscientiously the three 
vows by which as by three nails you are 
fastened to the cross of your Heavenly 
Spouse in the eyes of heaven and earth. 
Whatever may be the endeavors of the 
world, of the devil and of the flesh, the 
three envious enemies of your true happi¬ 
ness; whatever may be the attacks which 
they make upon you; whatever the induce¬ 
ments and allurements with which they 
approach you and try to entice you to de¬ 
scend from the cross, or at least to free 
yourself from it ever so little; never allow 
yourself to be conquered. This would 
be your shame, your misfortune, and your 
ruin. 

Vows conscientiously observed are pow¬ 
erful wings for elevating the soul to heaven, 
but if neglected they become a heavy load, 
which drags the soul into the abyss of hell. 


Conduct Towards One's Self 61 

The vow of poverty frees the religious 
from the cares and anxiety connected with 
the possession of earthly goods and makes 
the soul put its trust entirely into the Prov¬ 
idence of God. Although forbidding the 
possession of private property, it allows the 
religious to partake of all that belongs to 
the community. Having chosen this lovely 
virtue by your own free will, dismiss all 
anxiety regarding your temporal welfare; 
accept nothing and give nothing, whatever 
it may be, without your superior’s permis¬ 
sion, if you do not wish to incur God’s dis¬ 
pleasure. 

It is very great foolishness to have 
broken courageously the golden and silver 
fetters, which hold so many souls in the 
world captive under the yoke of the devil, 
and then to allow yourself in the cloister 
to be bound by weak and contemptible 


62 Conduct Towards One's Self 

things. To renounce all those claims which 
one could have made justly in the world and 
then to attach oneself to trifles in the clois¬ 
ter is certainly to act in a very inconsequent 
and unreasonable manner . 

If you experience a desire to possess 
something, consider whether it be necessary 
for you or not. If you do not need it, 
make up your mind to do without it and so 
take a pleasure in tasting of the fruit of the 
tree of life, which is nothing else but pov¬ 
erty. If, however, you really do need 
something, then ask for it humbly from 
those who have the right to give it to you. 
Should they grant your petition thank God 
and show your gratitude. Should they re¬ 
fuse your petition, submit patiently and 
resignedly, without allowing yourself to 
give way to ill-humor, although your health 
and even your life itself should become 
endangered by the refusal. What more 


Conduct Towards One's Self 63 

glorious death could you desire than to die 
in the practice of so noble a virtue? 

To take the vow of poverty and not he 
willing to hear all the consequences of it is 
to he guilty of hypocrisy , which is very 
hateful to God and brings ruin to the soul. 

The perfect vow of obedience deprives 
the soul of its own will and its own desires 
and thus frees it from two sources of all 
kinds of imperfections and sins. For this 
reason be always on your guard not to do 
anything that may not be in harmony with 
your vow of obedience. Observe this vow 
perfectly, so that on the day of judgment, 
when questioned regarding the works per¬ 
formed by you during your lifetime, you 
may answer: “ I have performed them all 

because I was ordered to perform them by 
obedience. ,, What a sweet consolation 
for the soul to give such an answer! How 


64 Conduct Towards One's Self 

short will be the examination and how mer¬ 
ciful the judgment! 

No obedient religious was ever lost and 
no disobedient one ever went straight to 
heaven. 

With the vow of obedience the religious 
brings to God the most pleasing sacrifice 
that can be made to Him, because by it is 
offered the most precious gift that one can 
have in this world. For this reason a re¬ 
ligious who gives himself entirely to the 
will of his superiors, and renounces his 
own will, even in the smallest things, gives 
more honor to his Creator, than if he 
should, by following his own will, call to 
life again all the dead in the graveyard and 
convert a whole city. 

The obedient man will celebrate victories 
during his lifetime and will gain a heavenly 
crown at his death. 


Conduct Towards One's Self 65 

The vow of chastity frees the soul from 
all kinds of sensual attachments and thus 
frees it at the same time from an insatiable 
and mean tyrant. The soul, having been 
elevated above natural inclinations, be¬ 
comes like the angels; having been set free 
from the desire of the flesh, it approaches 
God and becomes His bride. Let it be 
your constant endeavor to guard chastity 
as the pupil of your eye. Shun the least 
danger of soiling it more carefully than 
you would shun the most disgusting and 
contagious disease. The words “ chas¬ 
tity ” and “ holiness ” are the same in the 
Greek language, and in fact the one cannot 
exist without the other. 

The woman of lowly rank who has be¬ 
come the spouse of a king merits an ex¬ 
traordinary punishment if she be found 
wanting in -fidelity . 


66 Conduct Towards One's Self 

Humility is the best custodian of chas¬ 
tity, as it is the common custodian of all 
virtues. No one can continue to be chaste 
if he be not humble. Humility is the solid 
foundation of religious perfection; by it is 
measured infallibly the degree of progress 
made in the spiritual life. St. Augustine 
says: “ It is a truth that does not admit 

of doubt that, in the same measure as you 
have humbled yourself in this world for the 
love of God, God will exalt you in the other 
world.” What excuse will you find for 
practising this virtue? To practise it, 
nothing but good will is required. Almost 
continually you will find occasions to hum¬ 
ble yourself. Seek always what is plain 
and simple, which is found more easily than 
what is great and splendid. Consider 
yourself as one who has merited very little 
consideration, and who is an imperfect and 
unworthy member of the community; as 


Conduct Towards One's Self 67 

one who has made a bad use of the special 
graces and blessings bestowed upon him by 
God. Do not reflect about how pious and 
zealous you may be. A little temptation 
may suffice to make of a beautiful angel an 
ugly demon. 

God delights in exalting those who hum¬ 
ble themselves, and He humbles those who 
exalt themselves. 

Should you, out of disgust or out of 
levity, have left the path of religious per¬ 
fection which you had entered upon so 
generously, and have instead entered on the 
broad road of an irregular life, and should 
you, consequently, have fallen into great 
faults and even into sins that are, indeed, 
very harmful for your vocation, listen to 
the urgent reproach of your Divine Spouse, 
which you will hear in the depth of your 
heart: “ Come, Sunamite, return to your 


68 Conduct Towards One's Self 

God.” Then enter at once into yourself 
and realize the miserable condition in which 
you are, and say in the inmost recess of 
your soul: “ My God and my Savior, I 

have grievously offended Thee; I am truly 
sorry for it; grant me the grace to do pen¬ 
ance, and let me at once begin to serve 
Thee, from now on, more faithfully and 
more fervently, in order to make up fully 
for my former neglect and unfaithfulness.” 

When God knocks at the door of our 
heart, no time must be lost in opening to 
Him. 

There can be no doubt that many re¬ 
ligious, when about to die, will suffer from 
great remorse of conscience because they 
have been less intent upon reaching re¬ 
ligious perfection than artists upon per¬ 
fecting themselves in their respective arts. 
Can you imagine a person possessing so lit- 


Conduct Towards One's Self 69 

tie intelligence and feeling as not to be 
ashamed at finding himself after seven or 
eight years of instruction in farming, build¬ 
ing, or in any other trade just as awkward 
as on the first day? What maiden would 
not be ashamed of herself, if, after two or 
more years of instruction in sewing, em¬ 
broidering, or similar work, she should be 
almost as unskilful as on the first day that 
she began to receive instruction ? It is only 
in religious communities that one finds per¬ 
sons who do not blush at having, after fif¬ 
teen or twenty years of religious profes¬ 
sion, made no more progress than in the 
first months of their noviceship. It even 
happens at times that the longer they live in 
a religious community, the farther they 
find themselves from perfection. May we 
not say with good reason that it would have 
been better for them if they had died dur¬ 
ing their noviceship, or soon after it, since 


jo Conduct Towards One > s Self 

death would then have found them better 
prepared? May we not with sorrow and 
bitter tears exclaim: “ The children of 
the world are indeed far more prudent in 
their generation than the children of 
light ? ” They take more trouble to ac¬ 
quire profits of doubtful value, the posses¬ 
sion of which renders them more or less 
unhappy, than some religious to secure 
heavenly treasures whose enjoyment will be 
without a flaw for eternity. After all, no¬ 
body doubts the truth: Labor and trouble 
must be in proportion to the honor and re¬ 
ward that is expected. 


Fourth Chapter 

CONDUCT TOWARDS YOUR 
SUPERIORS 

T he happiness and unhappiness, the 
piety and relaxation of a religious 
community depends far more upon Superi¬ 
ors than upon anything else. For this 
reason it is they who must be blamed before 
all others, if discipline and religious spirit 
are not what they should be. We can 
never suppose that any one enters a re¬ 
ligious community with the intention of 
leading an easy and lukewarm life; on the 
contrary, they embrace the religious life 
with the intention of acquiring greater 
spiritual perfection. If their Superior un¬ 
derstands how to encourage them, it is al- 
7i 


72 Conduct Towards Superiors 

most impossible that they should not 
become saints; if, however, their Superior 
has no zeal or knowledge of the different 
influences that act upon the soul, who, for 
want of virtue and religious spirit, does not 
give a good example, who is seeking only 
his own comfort, they cannot be expected 
to observe carefully and cheerfully all the 
rules and practices of the community. 

Good Superiors are the most precious 
gifts that God can bestow upon a commu¬ 
nity. 

Since the happiness of a religious com¬ 
munity depends so much on its Superior, 
do not allow yourself, in the choice of Su¬ 
periors, to be led by your own private inter¬ 
est, or by the suggestions of your own 
imperfection; but pray to the Holy Ghost, 
ask Him by the intercession of the Blessed 
Virgin Mary and the Saints of your order, 


Conduct Towards Superiors 73 

of the Guardian Angels of your commu¬ 
nity, and those who once lived with you in 
the same community and are now in heaven, 
to enlighten you to choose as Superiors 
those who are best fitted to promote the 
spiritual as well as the temporal welfare of 
the order. 

If the head is healthy, then all the mem¬ 
bers of the body experience its beneficial 
influence. 

If you ask whom you should choose as 
Superior, I answer: “ Choose the most 

humble, the one who has no desire at all to 
be Superior; secondly, choose the one who 
is most occupied with God, and least with 
his own interest; thirdly, choose the one 
who has the greatest love for the order and 
is most conscientious in strictly observing 
all its rules; fourthly, choose the one who 
is most prudent in the management of the 


74 Conduct Towards Superiors 

temporal affairs of the community, and 
who shows the least inclination to converse 
with people of the world. If no one can 
be found possessing all these qualifications, 
then choose the one who has at least the 
most important of them.” 

It is a great blessing for a religious order 
to have as Superiors only such as are fit to 
be Superiors . 

The Superior having been chosen, look 
upon him not as a person who like yourself 
is subject to imperfections, but recognize in 
him the one who is to hold in your regard 
the place of God. Religious who honor 
God in their Superiors will be rewarded as 
if they had honored God Himself. Those 
who, on the contrary, omit or refuse to do 
so, will be punished most severely by God, 
who will consider the offense as an offense 
committed against His own Divine Maj- 


Conduct Towards Superiors 75 

esty. The history of all times is proof 
that God acts in this way. 

The offense that is committed against 
him whom the Prince has appointed to hold 
his place is held to he directed against the 
Prince himself, and the laws punish such 
an offense as high treason. 

Obey your Superior at once and cheer¬ 
fully, not on account of his wisdom and 
prudence, for this would be an obedience 
according to the spirit of the world, and 
would be disgraceful for a religious; 
neither obey him because he belongs to a 
rich and noble family, for this would be the 
obedience of a servant of mean character, 
always willing to do whatever may be 
pleasing to others to gain their favor; 
neither obey the Superior because he has it 
in his power to force you to fulfil his or¬ 
ders in case you should not be willing to 


76 Conduct Towards Superiors 

do so, for this would be the obedience of 
a slave, who justly merits chastisement; 
neither obey because your Superior is a per¬ 
son pleasing to you, and who tries to order 
you to do what is according to your liking, 
for that would be the obedience of a capri¬ 
cious and spoiled child, who deserves to be 
punished. Obey your Superior solely be¬ 
cause he holds the place of Him to whom 
you have offered up your own will. That 
is the true religious obedience which is sure 
of a great reward in heaven. 

The truly obedient religious looks only to 
God. 

Have a great confidence in your Supe¬ 
rior, delight in keeping nothing secret from 
him. Have recourse to him in all your 
troubles with an even greater confidence 
than a daughter shows to her mother; 
look upon all he arranges as good, even 


Conduct Towards Superiors 77 

if it should go against your inclina¬ 
tion and judgment, unless, indeed, you 
should see in it a positive sin. To act thus 
means to live as a true religious, as one who 
walks on the direct road to heaven. 

v The rule of life , which God Himself de¬ 
clares to be a sure one, is infallible. 

Be willing to have your Superior make 
you aware of your faults, and, in order 
that he may do this the more readily, re¬ 
mind him at times and even entreat him to 
do so. Do we not esteem a mother who 
can not bear the sight of the least spot on 
her child without calling its attention to it, 
much more than the mother who, seeing the 
child covered with disgusting stains, would 
act as if she did not see them? 

The religious who likes to be corrected is 
on the sure road to perfection; but the one 
who hates and refuses to listen to correc- 


78 Conduct Towards Superiors 

tions will ever remain far from reaching 
the perfection of his vocation. 

Never complain of your Superiors, and 
do not listen to those who delight in criti¬ 
cizing them and grumbling about them. 
To join in such acts and to do the same 
would be for you a great misfortune. If 
Eve had not listened to the cunning words 
of the tempter, when in her hearing he 
blamed God’s command not to eat of the 
fruit, she would not have had to suffer so 
much, nor would she have incurred the 
danger of being lost for all eternity. Look 
upon all those who find fault with the or¬ 
ders of a Superior as likenesses of the 
satanic serpent. By trying to make you 
have a bad opinion of your Superior, 
they rob him of that confidence which is 
due to him and thus do him a great in¬ 
jury. 


Conduct Towards Superiors 79 

The member of the body which is not in 
connection with the head must necessarily 
die and decay. 

It is the will of God that you nourish 
for your Superior a special attachment, 
and that you endeavor to do always what is 
pleasing to him, remembering that he holds 
the place of God. But you are strictly for¬ 
bidden to flatter him, or to seek his favor 
and affection by unworthy means, for in¬ 
stance, by uncharitable reports about other 
members of the community. Is it not dis¬ 
graceful to meet in a religious community 
persons whose sole care is directed towards 
winning the good graces of their Superiors 
by trying to be always near them, to dis¬ 
cover their inclinations and likings, and 
thus to be able to please them in everything 
and to induce them to grant whatever they 
may wish. 


80 Conduct Towards Superiors 

It seems that mean self-love and self- 
interest have not enough slaves in the zvorld, 
and so they try to force their way also into 
religious communities, where the freedom 
of the children of God should reign exclu¬ 
sively and alone . 

Be grateful to all who have ever been 
your Superiors; preserve for them a special 
esteem, but do this always in such a man¬ 
ner that the confidence which you owe to 
your actual Superior may not be dimin¬ 
ished, for it is through his administration 
that God will give you His graces now, just 
as He gave them before through your 
former Superiors. If you act contrary to 
this, if you allow yourself to be led by the 
advice of your former Superiors, you act 
in a manner that will cause dissatisfaction 
to yourself, will lead you into numberless 
errors, and will help to bring about the ruin 
of the community. 


Conduct Towards Superiors 81 

A body with two heads is a disgusting 
monster, which can be expected to live only 
for a short time. 

If by the permission of God’s providence 
you belong to a religious community, which 
has as a Superior, one who is led by ca¬ 
price, by distrust, and by false reports, 
pleasing himself in humbling you whenever 
occasion offers, do not desist from giving 
him all those tokens of esteem which his 
office demands. Think of Him for whose 
love you have submitted yourself to a life 
of obedience; and should the aversion 
which you experience be ever so great, con¬ 
quer it generously, remembering the ex¬ 
treme grief which Our Lord Jesus Christ 
suffered, when He saw Himself so shame¬ 
fully treated by the Jews, abandoned 
by the Apostles, condemned by Pilate, 
and even deserted by His own Heavenly 
Father. 


82 Conduct Towards Superiors 

Then put your trust in God’s powerful 
help, which will come in due time. 

When the mother does not act as a 
mother, then the father takes a special care 
of the children . 

CONSIDERATION 

To what must we ascribe the fact that 
whilst in former times, as we are told by 
history, it was an easy task for one Supe¬ 
rior to direct two or three thousand reli¬ 
gious, yes, even a greater number, it is in 
our times, as experience proves, often very 
difficult for a Superior to direct only a small 
number. There can be no doubt that 
one of the reasons is this: that in former 
times all those who petitioned to be ad¬ 
mitted into a religious community used to 
prepare themselves in the world for such a 
life. They took this step after long and 
earnest deliberation; and then entered the 


Conduct Towards Superiors 83 

community with so great a desire to change 
their manner of living and to become per¬ 
fect, that those who were appointed to di¬ 
rect them had but to find out new means to 
assist them in their battle against their evil 
inclinations, and to assist them in their ar¬ 
dent desire to become more and more 
united to God. But in our times some per¬ 
sons leave the world rather to relieve their 
families and to secure a home, than to 
sanctify themselves. They are often so 
sensitive that they will not suffer for vir¬ 
tue’s sake a part of what they would have 
to suffer if they remained in the world. 
What a difficult task to direct such 
persons according to the rules of re¬ 
ligious perfection! Have pity, therefore, 
on your Superiors, who try their best 
to please their inferiors, and to accommo¬ 
date themselves to their different characters 
and inclinations, and are at the same time 


84 Conduct Towards Superiors 

fully aware that they have to give to God 
an account of the spiritual progress of every 
single one of them. Entreat God contin¬ 
ually to give to every one of your Superiors 
in abundance the necessary prudence and 
virtues to fulfil their duties well, and be 
very careful not to make their office a 
greater burden to them by your want of re¬ 
ligious spirit. 

It is a sign of utter heartlessness to see 
one's mother groan under the weight of a 
heavy burden and even to increase its 
weight instead of assisting her to render it 
lighter. 


Fifth Chapter 

CONDUCT TOWARDS THE MEM¬ 
BERS OF THE COMMUNITY 


L et all the members of your community 
know that you have a sincere esteem 
for them. Be very careful not to give the 
least sign of despising any one, and avoid 
as much as possible what may give any one 
just cause for offense. What a scandal it 
is to find in a religious community persons 
who, because they belong to a noble family, 
have little or no regard for others and look 
upon them with pity and contempt. But it 
would be far more sad, if others of humble 
birth should be guilty of disrespect towards 
those whom they would have considered it 
a great honor to be allowed to serve in the 
world. 


85 


86 Conduct Towards the Community 

The life of those who live in a religious 
community should he like to that of the 
saints in heaven, where all contemplate, 
honor, esteem, and love one another in 
God. 

Look upon all with whom you live as 
you would look upon the saints of heaven, 
if they should come upon earth. Acting 
thus you will not find anything to blame; 
all with whom you have to live in the com¬ 
munity will then appear good to you, not¬ 
withstanding some unfavorable appear¬ 
ances. 

Whenever you feel disquieted by some 
suspicion which forces itself into your 
heart, refuse your consent to it at once, 
with all the power of your will, God help¬ 
ing you by His grace. Recollect -yourself, 
humble yourself before God by remember¬ 
ing your own faults and sins and cry out: 
“ O my Lord, have mercy on me, proud 


Conduct Towards the Community 87 

that I am and guilty in Thy sight. I should 
throw myself at the feet of the one whom 
I have the presumption to judge.” 

The one who abstains from judging his 
neighbor may expect a merciful judge in 
our Lord. 

Speak of all the members of your com¬ 
munity with great respect. Avoid convers¬ 
ing in secret with any one in the community, 
and never listen to backbiting. Be very 
much on your guard about spreading bad 
rumors about any one; this could easily dis¬ 
turb peace and concord and diminish mu¬ 
tual hearty affection. 

The calumniator may bring spiritual ruin 
to the most pious community. He who 
speaks badly of members of the community 
undermines it slowly; he who causes dis¬ 
cord pulls it down from its foundation. 
All such are on the road to eternal misery. 


88 Conduct Towards the Community 

Make it a rule not to contradict any one 
unless otherwise you would seem to ap¬ 
prove of what is really bad; do not insist 
stubbornly on defending your own opinion 
in a manner not in conformity with charity, 
which is the queen of virtues; on the con¬ 
trary, humbly submit your judgment to that 
of others for charity’s sake. If it be nec¬ 
essary to defend your opinion, state quietly 
your reasons for doing so for truth’s sake, 
not in order that your superiority may be 
acknowledged. 

The contentious spirit is like an animal, 
which attacks other animals and is shunned 
by every one of them. 

If you notice in members of your com¬ 
munity faults which only the Superior can 
remedy, then you are obliged in conscience 
to make your Superior aware of them; 
otherwise you would render yourself guilty 
of them, and the evil consequences would 


Conduct Towards the Community 89 

be put to your account; be on your guard, 
however, lest you give this information out 
of envy, aversion, revenge, or any passion. 
Do your best to be perfectly sure of what 
you say, and do not add as true what is 
doubtful, if you do not wish to make your¬ 
self guilty of the shameful sin of calumny, 
for which complete reparation is difficult 
and forgiveness hard to obtain. 

The religious who makes known the 
faults of members of the community with 
the good intention of having them cor¬ 
rected, tries to diminish them rather than 
to magnify them, and he renders to the in¬ 
dividual member and to the community a 
great service. The one who acts otherwise 
is a disturber of concord and union. 

Feel the happiness and the misfortune of 
the other members of the community as 
your own; rejoice from your heart over 


90 Conduct Towards the Community 

what gives them joy and grieve over what 
causes them pain and sorrow. Do all you 
can to console them. As the religious com¬ 
munity forms but one spiritual body, whose 
head is Jesus Christ, it is but right that the 
members should share all joys and sorrows 
and mutually participate in them. 

When one member of the body suffers 
pain all the other members feel the pain 
also; should this not be the case, then it 
would be evident that they are wanting in 
life and vitality. 

As much as possible repress all natural 
aversion and shun all particular friend¬ 
ships. They are two equally dangerous 
excrescences of corrupt nature. They 
bring disaster and ruin to the most pious 
communities. They are more dangerous 
and more contagious diseases because they 
enter the heart through the attraction of a 


Conduct Towards the Community 91 

highly seductive sensuality. It takes great 
care and pains to guard against this danger. 
How sad it is to see religious, who have 
broken courageously and generously the 
heavy chains of flesh and blood which 
bound them to their parents, allow them¬ 
selves then, in the perfect state of religion, 
to become slaves of a particular friendship. 
On the other hand, is it not distressing to 
see one who has entered a religious order to 
aspire therein after a higher perfection be¬ 
cause he was not satisfied with the Chris¬ 
tian perfection, which commands us to love 
our neighbor, nevertheless wilfully and de¬ 
liberately in after-life entertain in his heart 
aversion against his associates, so that 
sometimes he cannot bear the sight of them. 

Wilful aversion against our neighbor is 
totally incompatible with the spirit of Chris¬ 
tianity, and particular friendships may 
cause the total ruin of Christian perfection . 


92 Conduct Towards the Community 

Do not be envious if other members of 
the community enjoy greater confidence 
than you receive and are preferred to you; 
and do not be jealous if others receive more 
tokens of esteem and love than are given 
to you. Repress at once all motions of 
self-love as soon as you become aware of 
them. Thank God often from your heart 
for all gifts, graces, and favors, which He 
has bestowed upon others and continues to 
bestow upon them; and entreat Him to 
preserve and increase these gifts, if it be 
for His own greater glory and for the 
greater spiritual profit of the recipients. 
O admirable mystery, to be enabled to lay 
up precious treasures in Heaven, without 
incurring the least danger and with so little 
trouble! 

The true love of our neighbor is, in fact, 
a philosopher’s stone nowhere else to be 
found, which changes everything into gold; 


Conduct Towards the Community 93 

envy, on the contrary, is that deadly poison 
which brought spiritual death to Lucifer in 
heaven and cast him with many other an¬ 
gels into hell. 

Among the many occasions which a re¬ 
ligious person finds to practise heroic vir¬ 
tues and thus to heap up rich treasures for 
eternity, one of the most frequent is in 
accommodating himself to the different 
characters with which he has to live in a 
religious community, and in bearing pa¬ 
tiently their manifold weaknesses. There 
can be no doubt that such charitable bear¬ 
ing of another’s faults and weaknesses is 
far more difficult than fasting, scourging, 
and similar severe practises, on account of 
the continual violence to self that is re¬ 
quired to bear with others; and for this 
reason it is the more pleasing and meri¬ 
torious in the sight of the Divine Ma¬ 
jesty. 


94 Conduct Towards the Community 

When one tries for the love of God, to 
become all to all, God will give Himself 
most willingly to that sold. 

It would be a great disorder in a re¬ 
ligious community and a sure sign of ap¬ 
proaching ruin, if the younger members 
should have but little esteem for the older 
ones and should refuse to listen to their 
well-meant and useful advice; but not less 
unjustly would the older members act if 
they should reproach and correct the 
younger members as though they were mere 
children and servants. The younger ones 
owe to the older ones a great and heartfelt 
reverence, and the older ones owe to the 
younger ones a considerate and cordial 
love. Charity and reverence are the two 
scales which justice holds at equal height in 
her hands, so that to every member in the 
community shall be given what is due to 
him, thus to form a beautiful union of 


Conduct Towards the Community 95 

many hearts, which union is the true 
mother of a holy community. 

Age deserves to be honored on account 
of the virtues acquired by a long and la¬ 
borious life; and youth deserves charitable 
consideration for its effort to acquire per¬ 
fection . 

Guard against certain tokens of intimacy 
which may be pardonable in less educated 
persons in the world, but are unbecoming 
in religious. Among them may be men¬ 
tioned : Accosting one another too fa¬ 
miliarly; touching one another without due 
respect; using too unrestrained or too 
tender expressions in speaking to one an¬ 
other. Such intimacies and the like never 
last long; they have their root either in un¬ 
steadiness of mind, or in the agreement of 
ill-regulated sentiments. Having reached 
their end and ceased, they often become the 


g6 Conduct Towards the Community 

cause of many disorders. The old adage 
remains true: ee Familiarity breeds con¬ 
tempt; contempt begets disagreement; and 
disagreement enters on the road to ruin ” 
Do not seek out religious who are willing to. 
flatter you and to yield to your natural in¬ 
clinations, however unworthy they may be. 
Instead, seek out those who are willing to 
correct you charitably, and not to let the 
least imperfection pass without trying to 
call your attention to it and to help you to 
get rid of it. Look upon the first class as 
hidden enemies who will one day be the 
first to condemn you openly as they con¬ 
demn you already in their hearts; but rec¬ 
ognize in the latter class your sincere 
friends who work for your true advance¬ 
ment and salvation. 

Flattery is distinguished from true 
friendship in this, that it tries to please in 
order to benefit itself, whereas true friend - 


Conduct Towards the Community 97 

ship, even when reproaching and correct¬ 
ing, intends to benefit others . 

The true religious, like a guileless dove, 
does not feel indignation and revengeful- 
ness, and is far from nourishing sentiments 
of hatred against those who have done and 
said what can be justly considered an of¬ 
fense. On the contrary the true religious 
willingly suffers unjust and harsh treat¬ 
ment and even rejoices at having a chance 
to imitate the suffering of our Divine 
Master. Are you really in earnest about 
becoming a true religious? Why not? 
You have a splendid chance to become one 
by the grace of God, which will not be 
wanting to you. Repress at once all senti¬ 
ments of aversion, and in so doing be 
guided by supernatural motives. With re¬ 
gard to the frictions that cannot be avoided, 
humble yourself and be the first to ask 
pardon, even though you are less at fault. 


98 Conduct Towards the Community 

Pray especially for any who by bearing ill- 
will against you, give you a chance to ac¬ 
quire heavenly riches; and carefully make 
use of every occasion that presents itself 
to render them service. 

Rendering good for evil is a holy work 
that is practised by the faithful servants of 
Christ . 


CONSIDERATION 

The esteem and love which the first 
Christians had for one another was one of 
the most efficacious means which God made 
use of to lead many heathen nations into 
the infant Church; but, when this mutual 
esteem began to decrease, and the mutual 
love began to grow cold, this attraction be¬ 
gan to grow less evident and the nations to 
show less willingness to embrace the Faith. 
Religious communities have shared in this 
disaster. The more the people in the world 


Conduct Towards the Community 99 

became aware of the love and esteem which 
the members of religious communities had 
for one another, the greater was the number 
of those who left home, parents, and 
friends to become religious, so that St. 
John Chrysostom could say that at his time 
Greece possessed as many religious as secu¬ 
lar houses. In the one city of Antioch St. 
Julia saw herself surrounded by ten thou¬ 
sand religious women; but when mutual 
esteem and mutual cordiality decreased in 
religious houses, numbers of people in the 
world thought of religious communities 
with a kind of aversion, and if some entered 
them it was often done without the right 
intention and without due preparation. 
History tells us that God’s providence, 
which is particularly intent on preserving 
the first spirit which He infused into an 
order when it was founded, is wont to erect 
on the ruins of a degenerate order that has 


ioo Conduct Towards the Community 

lost its spirit a new one, which will flourish 
in the Church of God just as long as its 
members continue to esteem and love one 
another truly. 

It has at all times been the conviction that 
one can serve God most perfectly where mu¬ 
tual love and esteem holds sway. 


Sixth Chapter 

CONDUCT TOWARDS INFERIORS 


Y ou would grossly deceive yourself if, 
when chosen to be a Superior you 
would imagine that you had nothing else to 
do but to command others and to live ac¬ 
cording to your own liking. You know 
full well that it is the Superior’s strict duty 
to take as much care of his inferiors as 
of himself. In the measure in which they 
have renounced everything to abandon 
themselves entirely to God’s providence, 
you, who hold the place of God’s provi¬ 
dence, are bound to take care of them. 
It is your bounden duty to look out for all 
their temporal and spiritual wants, to as¬ 
sist them in all their difficulties, to love 


102 Conduct Towards Inferiors 

them as sons and daughters, to honor them 
as spouses of Jesus Christ, Who has con¬ 
fided them to your care, and Who will 
one day call upon you to give a strict ac¬ 
count 

Upon the care and watchfulness of the 
shepherd depend his reward and the well¬ 
being of his flock. 

Remember that it is an ascertained fact, 
that the three most excellent rulers who 
ever kept watch over the children of God, 
Moses, St. Peter, and, above all, Our Lord 
Jesus Christ, were remarkable for their ex¬ 
traordinary love. Be led by great mild¬ 
ness. Whenever you have to give a com¬ 
mand, do it humbly, in a manner that is 
more like a petition. When you grant a 
favor do it with kindness. When your 
duty requires of you to refuse a request do 
it in such a way that your inferiors cannot 


Conduct Towards Inferiors 103 

help noticing that you feel sorry that you 
cannot grant it. When you are called upon 
to reprove do so without pride, without 
being unduly excited, and, especially, with¬ 
out being led by any unruly passion. 

The mildness of the commander is a ' 
sweet honey that removes the bitter taste 
which is so often experienced in the execu¬ 
tion of an order. 

Call to your mind that terrible vision in 
which the Superiors of an order appeared 
all in fire, for their excessive and harmful 
leniency. They had abandoned the disci¬ 
pline of the order to the arbitrary will of 
each member of it. Desiring to please all 
members of the community, they had 
brought down spiritual ruin upon the whole 
order. Never, therefore, let the transgres¬ 
sion of the rules and customs of your order 
pass unpunished. If you are convinced 


104 Conduct Towards Inferiors 

that mildness on your part will not induce 
a religious to do his duty, add severity to 
the mildness. Jesus, the mildest of all the 
children of men, reproached St. Peter very 
severely, often blamed His apostles with 
indignation, and did not take back the 
scathing words with which He reproached 
the Pharisees. 

The good shepherd must take with him 
not oil alone, but vinegar as well, so as to 
use it in case of necessity. 

The most necessary virtue for a Superior 
is prudence, not the worldly prudence of 
which St. James speaks, which is only in¬ 
tent on making oneself loved by others, and 
on spending the time of Superiorship in a 
pleasant manner, careless of what may be 
the consequences; but a spiritual and heav¬ 
enly prudence, led by which a Superior uses 
all the means in his power to render his 


Conduct Towards Inferiors 105 

subjects more spiritual and virtuous; the 
heavenly prudence which enables the Supe¬ 
rior to understand well the character and 
the special needs of every single one of his 
subjects. Such prudence, like a wise phy¬ 
sician, prescribes remedies that are accord¬ 
ing to the nature of the spiritual disease, 
being always ready rather to amputate a 
decaying limb than to allow the whole body 
to be infected. Often and perseveringly 
entreat the Holy Ghost to bestow this neces¬ 
sary virtue upon you in an ever-increasing 
abundance. It is a plant not to be found 
in the soil of the world; the Heavenly Gar¬ 
dener alone can plant it in our hearts. 

Prudence is as necessary for a Superior 
for the guidance of a community as a rud¬ 
der is necessary for a pilot to direct the ship. 

When distributing offices do not allow 
yourself to be led too much by a desire to 


106 Conduct Towards Inferiors 

satisfy the members of the community; but 
have before all, before your eyes, their 
spiritual welfare. Before acting pray to 
the Holy Ghost that He may enlighten you 
to know those who are the most fitted 
for the different offices. After having ap¬ 
pointed them do not omit to inquire from 
time to time how they fulfil their duties. 
Imitate the vigilance of a commander, who, 
although having full confidence in the ability 
and faithfulness of his officers, visits them 
from time to time, in order to assure himself 
that they are really doing their duty. 

Although a Superior must never seem to 
mistrust his inferiors, he must, however, 
never cease to he watchful. 

The novitiate is the quarry out of which 
the stones are cut for the heavenly dwell¬ 
ing of a religious community; for a perfect 
novice will in time become a perfect reli- 


Conduct Towards Inferiors 107 

gious, and out of perfect religious God 
makes His saints. For this reason choose 
as master of novices one who is deeply im¬ 
bued with the spirit of the order, so that 
he may, by word and example, instil this 
spirit, imperceptibly, but surely, into the 
hearts of the novices. It is said that plants 
which stand near trees out of which resin 
flows are quite aromatic; even so, novices 
are likely to gain a participation in the 
virtues of their master of novices. 

The child experiences throughout its 
whole life the effect of the milk which it 
has sucked at its mother's breast. 

Since it is your conviction that a religious 
vocation is not a vocation for all, do not 
allow yourself in admitting novices to be 
influenced by the splendor of riches. 
Riches are by no means required by God. 
Neither should you allow yourself to be 


108 Conduct Towards Inferiors 

influenced by noble birth; for such a con¬ 
sideration has brought many religious com¬ 
munities to the brink of ruin. Do not 
listen to the entreaties of parents who often 
welcome the cloister as a desirable and 
honorable home for children less gifted 
mentally or bodily, so that they may be able 
to bestow more money and care on the 
other children of the family. Do not listen 
to flesh and blood, which are such bad ad¬ 
visers that it would be surprising if they 
should not deceive you under the pretext 
of proper love for relatives. Examine, 
rather, with great care whether the charac¬ 
ter of those who present themselves is 
suited for a religious community, and 
whether their call has all the marks of com¬ 
ing from God. If you admit into the reli¬ 
gious community a person who is not surely 
called by God, who does not possess piety, 
who knows nothing about self-denial, this 


Conduct Towards Inferiors 109 

individual will soon enter the broad road; 
he may hinder the other members of the 
community from reaching perfection, and 
will bring to the community many temporal 
and spiritual troubles. 

A single sheep suffering from a conta¬ 
gious disease very often infects the whole 
dock . 

You may allow members of your com¬ 
munity to see persons in the parlor when 
asked for; first, if you know that the vis¬ 
itors are respectable persons; secondly, if 
the visits are not frequent; thirdly, if the 
conversation does not last too long and if 
the religious, after such intercourse with 
people of the world, are more obedient and 
more charitable towards the members of 
the community, and appear to be more 
spiritually recollected. But, if you do not 
know the persons who pay these visits; if 


no Conduct Towards Inferiors 

they come too often and remain longer than 
is necessary; if the religious, in consequence 
of such visits, become negligent in their 
spiritual exercises, less obedient, somewhat 
haughty in their behavior, freer in their 
manner of speaking, be convinced that, if 
you do not put a stop at once to these visits, 
you will have to render a very strict account 
to God, and that a very severe judgment 
will be in store for you. 

A bad shepherd is he, who, when he sees 
the wolf coming, does not chase him away. 

One of the greatest faults a Superior can 
commit is to allow himself to be so much 
impressed by the first information received 
that he is unable to attend to a second ac¬ 
count and to weigh the truth of the first 
one. Here we have one of the most pain¬ 
ful trials for an inferior, namely, to become 
aware that his Superior’s heart is so preju- 


Conduct Towards Inferiors hi 

diced against him that it would be useless 
to endeavor to defend and justify himself 
before him. To stand such a trial an in¬ 
ferior needs a more than ordinary grace. 
For this reason, I conjure you not to believe 
at once as true what is reported to you, and 
not to come to a decision before obtaining 
a full knowledge of the case. 

The judge who listens only to one part 
of a case will seldom pronounce a just judg¬ 
ment. 

When you think it to be your duty to 
speak to one of your subjects about his 
faults, do not do so when excited, nor in a 
contemptuous, haughty, passionate manner. 
First consider the matter quietly before 
God, so as to find out the time, place, and 
manner to best effect the amendment of 
your inferior. Pray fervently and humbly 
to the Holy Ghost, that, whilst you speak 


ii2 Conduct Towards Inferiors 

to the ear of the guilty one. He may by His 
holv inspiration open his heart- If it be 
necessary to use reproachful words remove 
their bitterness by the expressed assurance 
that you are moved by the best and most 
charitable intention for the true spiritual 
welfare of him whom you reprove. 

If the bee does not draw its sting out of 
the desk of him whom it has pierced, it will 
die and will leave in the wound the poison 
that will cause a painful swelling. 

You will, without doubt, lead vour com¬ 
munity on the road of spiritual progress, 
and thus secure not only its spiritual but 
also its temporal happiness, if all your sub¬ 
jects have a true esteem and real love for 
you. Now, they will esteem you and put 
all their confidence in you, if your virtue is 
in accordance with your position; if you are 
the first to put your hand to the things that 


Conduct Towards Inferiors 113 

are more difficult and more repugnant to 
self-love. Your subjects will love you, if 
they notice that, without being attached to 
any one in particular, you are anxious and 
careful for all, especially for those who are 
most forgetful of themselves and of what 
concerns them. They will have complete 
confidence in you, if they cannot but per¬ 
ceive that you have a hearty affection for 
them, and that you are so prudent and re¬ 
served that no one will ever become aware 
of what they have confided to you. 

Esteem, love, and confidence are the three 
knots which unite the bonds between Supe¬ 
riors and inferiors so firmly, that neither 
Satan nor the world nor the flesh will ever 
separate them. 

If under your administration all mem¬ 
bers of the community are content (which 
is only possible when all aspire after per- 


114 Conduct Towards Inferiors 

fection) then thank God from your heart 
and give to Him alone the honor. But if, 
on the contrary, you find members in your 
community who are dissatisfied, then be 
consoled by the remembrance that St. Bene¬ 
dict lived with religious who disliked him 
and even hated him; that St. Bernard had 
for his secretary one who persecuted and 
calumniated him; that St. Francis of Assisi 
suffered greatly from Elias, his brother in 
religion; and that Jesus Christ, the ideal of 
perfect Superiors, patiently bore with the 
traitor Judas, who did far more wrong to 
Him than any one can do to you. Remem¬ 
ber that the imperfect and discontented 
religious is like a file in the hand of a gold¬ 
smith, who uses it to free the gold from its 
dross, and that it is like a broom which 
cleanses the house. 

The humble and zealous religious edifies 
the whole community, but the proud and 


Conduct Towards Inferiors 115 

restless religious gives to his Superior and 
to the other members of the community an 
opportunity to practise many virtues and to 
become more pleasing in the sight of God. 

Keep in your room the names of all the 
members of the community; pray for them 
every day, especially for those who stand 
most in need of your prayers. Endeavor 
to discover means for their amendment and 
never despair of your success. Do not al¬ 
low a month to pass without having a 
quarter of an hour’s talk with every single 
one of them, in order to learn their needs 
and their endeavor to acquire perfection; 
and try to dismiss them satisfied, at least by 
what you have said to them, if you cannot 
always do so by what you have done for 
them. 

There is nothing that consoles religious 
so much and sweetens so easily the bitter 


n6 Conduct Towards Inferiors 

feelings which sometimes arise in their 
hearts, is an earnest, kindly talk with their 
Superior, and the sincere affection which 
he makes known to them from time to time. 

CONSIDERATION 

The office of a Superior is far more diffi¬ 
cult than that of a general in an army, for 
it is more difficult to direct what is not seen 
than what is seen; it is also a more danger¬ 
ous task, since it is a greater misfortune 
for a soul to perish than for a human body. 
For this reason the saints have at all times 
feared the office of Superior, and many 
have ev^n fled from it as from a rock on 
which numbers have suffered shipwreck. 
Others only, when forced by obedience, 
have consented to be Superiors, and as 
Superiors they lived in a continual fear of 
losing their soul, having always a lively re¬ 
membrance ot the truth that they should 


Conduct Towards Inferiors 117 

have to give an account to God not only of 
their own soul, but also of the souls of their 
inferiors, and that they should be guilty not 
only of the sins committed by themselves, 
but also of those sins committed by the 
persons confided to their care, which they 
should and could have prevented. Con¬ 
vinced of this truth and anxious to secure 
salvation, it is to be expected that every true 
religious will do all that he can to escape 
becoming a Superior, and this the more in 
our times, since it is now far more difficult 
to lead others in the way of religious per¬ 
fection than it was in former days. Those 
who take upon themselves the duties of 
Superiors when forced to do so by obedi¬ 
ence have, after all, no reason to rejoice, 
because, although they can count on God’s 
special assistance, they must never forget 
that their judgment at last will be a strict 
one, because they have to give an account 


n8 Conduct Towards Inferiors 

of the doings and omissions of others, and 
that they will have to suffer for the sins 
which by their own fault they have not 
prevented. 

Nothing is more discouraging than the 
consciousness that we are obliged to give an 
account of the sins of others and have to 
suffer punishment for all sins which we 
have not prevented when it was possible for 
us to do so. 


Seventh Chapter 

CONDUCT TOWARDS THE WORLD 


S ince you left the world in order not to 
see any longer what you used to see, 
and not to hear any longer what you used 
to hear, do not call all this back by frequent 
visits and conversations. What is the use 
of having left all this, if you still allow your 
mind to dwell on it ? Is it sufficient to have 
gone far away from your father’s house 
and to have lost sight of it, if you still keep 
vividly alive the remembrance of it? Do 
you imagine that your parents and friends 
speak differently in the parlor and around 
the fireside than they did when you were 
yet with them in the world? You say that 
when you wish to see them it is only to be 


120 Conduct Towards the World 

helpful to them in their endeavor to perfect 
themselves. This is, no doubt, a very good 
intention, and let us believe that it is equally 
sincere; but be on your guard, lest by your 
endeavor to restore and to keep up the 
health of others, you fall ill yourself, and, 
in endeavoring to assist others to become 
spiritual, you yourself become imbued with 
the spirit of the world. 

Since the sin of our first parents, our 
nature is more inclined to do what is evil 
than whai is good. 

Stay away from the parlor as much as 
possible. Through this opening the bad at¬ 
mosphere of the world enters very easily 
into the cloister and does harm to the in¬ 
mates. The wicked enemy likes to retire 
to this entrenchment when he is forced to 
leave the strict enclosure., and he remains 
there watching for a chance to make an 


Conduct Towards the World 121 

attack. Through the parlor, as through a 
window, the world often enters into reli¬ 
gious houses and causes spiritual havoc. 
Make it a rule to visit the parlor only when 
duty requires it. Tell me, would you will¬ 
ingly visit a place where many have already 
perished? 

In the same measure as a religious loves 
his room of prayer, he will experience an 
aversion for the parlor; and the more he 
loves the parlor the less he loves his room 
of prayer. 

Imitate the prudent traveler, who, when 
he has to pass through a dangerous place, 
recommends himself in a special manner to 
God and endeavors to pass through it as 
fast as possible. If you have to pass 
through the parlor, do likewise; recommend 
yourself in a special manner to your guard¬ 
ian angel, and remain in the parlor only 


122 Conduct Towards the World 

as long as is strictly necessary. Tell me, 
is it edifying, or is it not indeed scandalous, 
to see a religious spending his time in the 
parlor whilst the rest of the community are 
in the chapel reciting the divine office, or 
are otherwise usefully employed? 

He who carefully shuns dangers will 
never suffer harm. 

Use the time that may be allowed you 
for conversation with seculars so as to 
edify them, speaking to them about such 
things as may increase their love for virtue 
and their desire to practise it Let them 
increase in their esteem of your sacred call¬ 
ing. How consoling for a father and for 
a mother to hear their son or their daughter 
speaking the language of angels! How 
happy do a brother and sister feel, if they 
learn from their brother and sister how to 
sanctify themselves! How delighted are 


Conduct Towards the World 123 

strangers who hear words full of piety 
coming from hearts burning with heavenly 
fire! 

When the iron hall is sunk deep into the 
cannon, then it will pierce the thickest walls; 
in the same manner will words coming out 
of a heart tilled with a burning love of God 
-find their way into the most hardened hearts. 

Do not inquire in the parlor after news, 
nor after wdiat is going on in the world; 
rather, cut short in a prudent manner con¬ 
versations about such things. What is the 
use of knowing them? They will only dis¬ 
tract you and rob you of the spirit of recol¬ 
lection, and will fill your mind with strange 
and useless thoughts, annoying you during 
time of prayer. The Israelites, who, al¬ 
though they had an abundance of manna in 
the desert, still desired the flesh-pots of 
Egypt* proved unmistakably by this that 


124 Conduct Towards the World 

their hearts were not as yet detached from 
those past pleasures. 

Man does not like to speak about and is 
quite unwilling to be instructed in what he 
does not like, and even less in what he hates. 

In your intercourse with strangers ob-. 
serve always a prudent reserve, so that your 
whole behavior, your gestures, your words, 
and your looks shall be such as become a 
spouse of Our Lord; keep at a becoming 
distance from those with whom you speak 
and be mindful of religious modesty. It is 
acting foolishly to bring an easily combus¬ 
tible matter near the fire. Do not, without 
your Superior’s knowledge, give a letter or 
a commission to any one. By acting con¬ 
trary to this, you would act against your 
vow, bring harm to your soul, and expose 
yourself in the convent to greater spiritual 
dangers than you were exposed to in the 


Conduct Towards the World 125 

world. Sooner or later your manner of 
acting would also become known, to your 
great confusion. 

The child which hides itself from the eyes 
of its mother exposes itself to great danger . 

Speak to strangers with great esteem of 
those who live with you in the same com¬ 
munity. Never speak to any one, whoever 
he may be, of disorders in the cloister, much 
less of the discomfort you may experience 
on account of them, except to him who can 
remedy the evil or give you really good ad¬ 
vice. Remember that Cham was cursed 
because he did not guard the honor of his 
father, and Cain because he took the life of 
his brother. 

Do not those who divulge the disorders 
found in a religious community and thus 
lessen the esteem which people have for it, 
in a certain sense make themselves guilty of 


126 Conduct Towards the World 

the same crimes as Cham and Cain? No 
wonder that they have to expect the same 
severe punishment . 

Do not meddle in secular affairs, even if 
they regard the members of your own fam¬ 
ily, towards whom you now have no obli¬ 
gation except to pray often and fervently, 
that God may protect and assist them. 
Remember the words of the great Master: 
“ Follow Me, and let the dead bury their 
dead ” {Matt. viii. 22). If, according to 
the judgment of your Superior, Christian 
charity should require you to do something 
more for them, do so only in strict con¬ 
formity with your Superior's orders. 
God most willingly listens to the prayers 
which good religious say for their parents, 
sisters, brothers, and friends; but He turns 
into confusion and disadvantage whatever 
else, without their Superior’s approval, 
they undertake to do for them. Experi- 


Conduct Towards the World 127 

ence confirms the truth that the less re¬ 
ligious are anxious for and busy them¬ 
selves about their relatives, the more God 
Himself takes care of them. 

God's blessing is always upon those re¬ 
ligious who sacrifice themselves entirely to 
their vocation. 

Shun all flattery, all unbecoming fa¬ 
miliarity, and all extravagant protestations 
of friendship. The abomination of deso¬ 
lation foretold by the prophet Daniel was 
seen when an unworthy priesthood had 
taken possession of the temple of Solo¬ 
mon ; and the greatest degradation and 
shame of the Christian religion, so bitterly 
lamented by the Saints, makes its appear¬ 
ance whenever in the places consecrated in 
a special manner to God worldly affairs 
are transacted and sensual, worldly pleas¬ 
ures are indulged in. It is a pity that a 


128 Conduct Towards the World 

religious, having chosen a vocation that 
demands humility, should give himself up 
to sensual indulgences and vanities. It is 
a pity that religious, having taken the vow 
of chastity, do not carefully avoid what¬ 
ever can cause temptation against this vir¬ 
tue. Hell, which seems to be too terrible 
for other sins, seems not terrible enough 
for this kind of sin when committed by a 
religious. 

The desire to see and to be seen, to give 
and to receive, to love and to be loved in 
return, have led great numbers into ruin . 

CONSIDERATION 

In olden times religious enjoyed such a 
respect among the people of the world that 
they were considered angels in the flesh. 
God worked so many miracles through 
them that people who were afflicted with 
disease hastened to them as to a certain 


Conduct Towards the World 129 

refuge. Remember what historians write 
regarding this matter. Let it suffice to 
mention what Paladius writes about the 
monastery of St. Isidore, where one thou¬ 
sand religious led such admirable holy lives 
that even those who were the least perfect 
possessed the gift of working miracles 
when it was for the glory of God. And 
why have not people in our times the same 
high opinion of those who live in religion? 
Why do we not see in our days similar 
miracles ? May it be, perhaps, because 
God does not bestow as many favors upon 
religious as He used to do in former 
times; or is it because they have not 
reached the same degree of education; or 
can miracles be necessary no longer; or 
where else can we find the cause of this 
great difference? It will be in vain to try 
to find another one than this, namely, that 
whilst some religious are entirely dead to 


130 Conduct Towards the World 

the world, others have left the world only 
in part; that, whilst some consecrate their 
entire hearts to God without reserve, 
others hold back part of it for their parents 
and friends; that, whilst some cross the 
ocean and pass through the desert to live in 
perfect concealment from the world, others 
have left between themselves and their 
families only a narrow path and would be 
very much put out if they had not fre¬ 
quent visits from them. Can we wonder 
that God ignores the latter religious and 
makes known the former ones by extraor¬ 
dinary favors? 

The one who loses himself entirely in 
God is thereby rendered able to work mir¬ 
acles. 


THE END 


D early beloved soul, I come now to an 
end, but before concluding I must 
ask of you most urgently three things, 
which your love will not refuse to grant. 

First of all, I entreat you to put to your¬ 
self, after the example of St. Bernard, this 
question, calling yourself by your own 
name: “ Bernard, why didst thou come 

here? ,, and then add these words: “ Ber¬ 
nard, thou must die one day; thou dost not 
know when, but sooner or later, and what 
wilst thou then wish to have done ? ” 

Secondly, think at least once a week, 
earnestly, on the confusion which, on the 
day of judgment, will overwhelm a re¬ 
ligious if he shall see himself in the pres¬ 
ence of his parents and friends who held 
131 


132 


The End 


him for a model of perfection, and who 
see him now amongst the reprobates; think 
what indignant accusations and reproaches 
he will have to hear from Jesus Christ, 
from the Blessed Virgin Mary, and from 
all the Saints, for having squandered the 
many graces that were bestowed upon him. 
What bitter, annihilating scorn he will 
then have to suffer from the wicked spirits! 
They will ask him of what use was it for 
him to have renounced the pleasures of 
this world, if he now be delivered up to 
eternal torments. On the other hand, be¬ 
hold the superabundant joys of those, 
who, after a pious life led for God, will 
be admitted to the never-ending joys of 
Heaven, to sing with all the angels and 
saints the ever-new canticles of praise and 
jubilation. 

Thirdly, pray incessantly that God may 
always be better known and more honored, 


The End 


133 


and that holy Church may spread more and 
more. Pray also for the welfare of the 
rulers of holy Church; for temporal 
princes; for your parents and for all the 
members of your family; for your friends; 
for all public and private necessities, as far 
as they are known to you; for the conver¬ 
sion of sinners, and, lastly, for the author 
and for the translator of this little book. 


A. M. d. G. 


PRINTED BY BENZIGER BROTHERS, NEW YORK. 





















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6 


Mr. Billy Buttons. Lecky. 

My Lady Beatrice. Cooke. 

Not a Judgment. Keon. 

One Afternoon and Other Stories. 

Other Miss Lisle. Martin. 

Out of Bondage. Holt. 

Outlaw of Camargue. De Lamothe. 

Passing Shadows. Yorke. 

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Pilkington Heir. Sadlier. 

Prisoners’ Years. Clarke. 

Prodigal’s Daughter. Bugg. 

Red Inn at St. Lyphar. Sadlier. 

Road Beyond the Town. Earls. 

Romance of a Playwright. Bornier. 

Rose of the World. Martin. 

Round Table of German Catholic Novelists. 

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Round the World Series. Vol. I. 


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Round the World Series. Vol. VI. 
Round the World Series. Vol. VII. 
Round the World Series. Vol. VIII. 
Round the World Series. Vol. IX. 
Round the World Series. Vol. X. 
Ruler of the Kingdom. Keon. 

Secret of the Green Vase. Cooke. 
Senior Lieutenant’s Wager. 

Shadow of Eversleigh. Lansdowne. 

So As By Fire. Connor. 

Soggarth Aroon. Guiran. 

Son of Siro. Copus. 

Songs and Sonnets. Egan. 

Story of Cecilia. Hinkson. 

Stuore. Earls. 

Tempest of the Heart. Gray. 

Test of Courage. Ross. 

That Man’s Daughter. Ross. 

Their Choice. Skinner. 

Through the Desert. Sienkiewicz. 

Trail of the Dragon. 

Training of Silas. Devine. 

True Story of Master Gerard. Sadlier. 
Turn of the Tide. Gray 
Unbidden Guest. Cooke. 

Under the Cedars and Stars. Sheehan. 
Unravelling of a Tangle. Taggart. 

Up in Ardmuirland. Barrett. 

Vocation of Edward Conway. Egan. 
Wargrave Trust. Reid. 


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7 


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Making of Mortlake. Copus. 

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Mary Tracy’s Fortune. Sadlier. 

Master Fridolin. Giehrl. 

Melor of the Silver Hand. Bearne. 

Milly Aveling. S. T. Smith. 

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My Strange Friend. Finn. 

Mystery of Cleverly. Barton. 

Mysterious Doorway. Sadlier. 

Mystery of Hornby Hall. Sadlier. 

Nan Nobody. Waggaman. 

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Old Charlmont’s Seed Bed. S. T. Smith. 

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Our Lady’s Lutenist. Bearne. 

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